Good data, stronger Tribes

Data is integral to the well-being of communities. With good data, policymakers can make laws and regulations that reflect the conditions and needs of the populations they serve, as well as make informed decisions about how best to support their citizens. 

Native Americans need data that sufficiently measures their populations, lands, and governing priorities. Native nations face the challenge of governing their citizens and territories while needing to rely on data that would be considered inadequate for nearly any other group in the United States. 

This analysis, published jointly by Brookings Metro and the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), aims to identify the role that regional organizations can play in solving the many data challenges that exist for Native American Tribes and Native American people.

To do so, the report first outlines five challenges that affect data about Tribes and Native American people: 

1. Sample sizes for data about Native Americans are often too small, which affects the quality of many data sets about Tribes and Native American people. 
2. The relative remoteness and noncontiguous geography of Tribal reservations make data collection and aggregation difficult. 
3. Many data sets treat Native Americans as just a race, a decision that reflects misunderstandings about Native identity and Tribal governance. 
4. Data sets are often designed without Tribal input, and data sets do not always reflect Tribal needs or interests. 
5. Some federal, state, and local data remains inaccessible to Tribes. 

Read more about these challenges in the full report

The report then presents six insights from Tribal leaders and stakeholders about the use of data and data priorities in the SCAG region: 

1. Tribes engage with data in a variety of ways, and they have a strong interest in data that more accurately measures their populations and lands. 
2. While Tribes face an array of different economic conditions, they see data as a key enabler for accessing federal, state, and regional funding to meet critical economic development needs. 
3. The lack of understanding of Tribal sovereignty contributes to misunderstandings about Tribes as government entities. 
4. Sample size limitations, Tribal boundaries, and other challenges inhibit the development of new data products by and for Native American communities. 
5. Tribes vary significantly in their data capacity, priorities, desire for autonomy, and stances on regional and state involvement in data creation. 
6. Many current government processes and structures struggle to support Tribal data capacity. 

Read more about these insights in the full report

Finally, the report provides a set of ideas for action for regional governments to improve data quality for Tribal partners and Native American citizens, as well as state and federal actions that would amplify and scale regional efforts. These ideas cover four themes: 

1. Implement data strategies for interacting with Tribes and Tribal data. 
2. Invest in Tribal data capacity. 
3. Support Tribal sovereignty and self-determination. 
4. Make government data more accurate and relevant to Tribes and Native American people. 

Read more about these ideas for action in the full report

While the report is centered on the SCAG region, its findings have national applications. In 2025, the federal government has taken a new stance toward data by removing a growing number of federal data sets and research reports from the public domain, such as demographic information on minority groups and public health statistics. This has had a disproportionate impact on topics of interest to Native American communities. 

Regional and state governments have a more important role than ever before in partnering with Tribes to support data as well as overall community and economic well-being. This report informs those efforts by helping regional and state governments better understand how data can be more effectively deployed to support the well-being of Native nations, Native American people, and all communities. In doing so, regional and state government organizations can take another significant step toward creating regions that are both economically prosperous and inclusive, generating genuine opportunity for all.